It is believed that motorcycle owners typically place a premium on the aesthetic appearance of their motorcycles. In light of this, motorcycle manufacturers generally tend to shy away from motorcycle designs that require anything to be fixedly attached thereon (i.e., in plain view) which takes away (i.e., stands out) from the overall guise or exterior look of the cycle. The reasoning lies in the belief that such designs may be negatively received by the public, resulting in less consumer demand for such motorcycles. This concern is of particular importance in reference to the front portion of the motorcycle, as the front portion is always within plain view of a rider whenever he or she is operating the motorcycle. One component located on the front portion of the motorcycle that is in plain view and stands out is an upper portion of a fastener used to couple a head tube of a frame to upper and lower triple clamps operatively coupled to a steering mechanism of the motorcycle.
While the upper portion of the fastener does stand out, the upper portion generally needs to be in contact with, and in turn, visible on an upper surface of the upper triple clamp in order for the fastener to function as intended, namely to couple the frame to the triple clamps and facilitate the rotation of the steering fork with respect to the motorcycle frame. As such, there have been attempts to make the upper fastener portion more presentable or aesthetically pleasing in appearance. Such attempts have included flush mounting the upper fastener portion with the upper surface of the upper triple clamp, smoothing off edges of the upper fastener portion to be flush with the upper surface of the upper triple clamp, providing the upper fastener portion with a chrome finish to match the rest of the metal surfaces on the motorcycle, or even covering the upper fastener portion with a cap. While each of these attempts may have been successful to an extent, they still provide the rider with a construction that involves the upper portion of the fastener being in plain view. Further, by its very location on the motorcycle, the upper fastener portion is generally susceptible to contact with environmental elements (e.g., rain, dirt, etc.). As such, the upper fastener portion may be susceptible to corrosion, discoloring, blemishing, etc. brought on by its contact with the environmental elements. If this corrosion, discoloring, blemishing, etc. did occur, it would make the upper fastener portion even more likely to stand out to the consumer.